getting closer

So I am getting closer. Getting closer to what you might ask?  Getting closer to the finish for this self portrait painting.  I would say that I'm getting closer to being "satisfied" with the painting but a teacher once asked me, after looking at one of my paintings, if I was "satisfied" with it.  I responded "yes" before he told me to never be satisfied, which I now take into account for all of my work.  Therefore this painting is getting closer to  the stage where you look at it, make adjustments, look at it some more, make further adjustments that could sometimes regress to a less developed state, and finally fix it, walk away, and accept what you learned from it.  I still have a lot to do that will further pull the piece together... so stay tuned

Thanksgiving!

painting in the making

This project is a self portrait project where I'm taking a traditional painting and putting my self-portrait in it. When someone tells you to create a self-portrait, usually, the first thing you think of is rendering your face.  This doesn't always have to be the case.  It is a representation of yourself.  It could be an animal, it could be a collage of all different things, it doesn't have to look like you (after saying all that, mine probably will end up looking like me since that's what I'm going for).

The painting I'm using is Madame de Pompadour by Boucher. I figured that this is a very intricate piece and I could learn a lot about painting in general.  This is a very useful process and is teaching me about color mixing, and how to apply the paint.  It's also teaching me a lot about my own style of painting, although it doesn't show much when you have to render something exact. However, it makes you more aware of the individual decisions you make while painting future pieces.

I think I'm going to do collage work in the background of the piece, but very subtly. I'm also including my face, probably with a yankee hat or something and sneakers showing underneath my dress.

So if you're ever up for doing some painting exercises,  of course painting directly from observation is fantastic, but painting pieces from the masters can't hurt either.

Illustrator: my new best friend

When I first started learning illustrator 2 months ago, I didn't realize how much I would like it.   The first one is with the pen and pencil tool.  The second one is all pen tool. Now i just have to learn photoshop better.

Halloweeeeeeeen!

Don't turn out the lights....or else

I do sketchy sketch

friendship piece

 This was a project on friendship and I  chose to base it on the saying " I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine." I tried not to make it too cliche'. The hair was fun.  My inspiration came from Sam Weber, Zhou Fan, and Hope Gangloff.  Hope Gangloff wil be at FIT at the end of the semester giving a talk with some other artists!! Couldn't be more excited! She does amazing things with ballpoint pen! Looker up

Nothing like blueberry pie. It looked so cool i couldn't

 resist taking pictures during the process of eating it!!

Fiona

Not creepy at all. I just drew my roommate while she was sleeping a few nights ago. Got a sudden urge to paint. What's better than someone modeling for you for an hour or two and them not even knowing it?...not to mention the creepy babies on the wall

peace project

This was a painting I did for the Peace Project which collected art to raise money for war victims in Sierra Leone(which, sadly, is practically everyone). I learned that there are only 18 doctors in the entire country. Also over 20% of the world's amputees live there.  For the project, we had to show what peace is to us.  I painted somebody listening to two beating hearts as if listening to beats of music which shows the significance of being close to others.

nesting doll

 This summer I focused on experimenting with different mediums.  I attempted painting on a water-gun(but it started peeling), I painted on wood, and I got myself a bucket of self- drying clay since I loved working with it so much on past projects.  This time, I made a nesting doll (a type of doll that originated in Russia).  I sculpted it out of clay and painted it. It was a lot of fun. Take a look.  

I decided to do the whole painting over again because I wasn't happy with it. I am much more satisfied with this one. And I decided to make parts of the dragon out of paper!

This is painting #1 based on this poem:

Muscles rippled under the blue-green scales as the dragon stretched, then relaxed.

Fascinated, I watched the creature freeze to perfect immobility. I stared until the

man noticed me. With a glare, he rolled down his sleeve.

"Nice tattoo," I said, embarrassed.

"What tattoo?" he asked, turning away.

Under his sleeve, I saw something move.

I'm working on this painting about a boy who is in the freezer of a restaurant eating all the food.  I'm taking a break from it for a few days because I'm running into a lot of problems with it.  A lot of things are becoming hard to read and things aren't pushing and pulling the way they should be.  To be continued...      any suggestions?

So I used the rest of my clay from the traffic cone to sculpt a face.  There was a picture I found online of this boy in Africa and I just went from there. I'm starting to like sculpting. Time to buy some more clay!

Mountain goat + blowfish = Mountainish Bloat

 

So...I painted on an awesome, dirty, original, New York City traffic cone! It represents Queen Victoria. Check it out! It helped me discover my love for paper clay!

I realized how much I love using matte medium after doing this project, especially for the big spider.  Yay, Little Miss Muffet!... I mean, poor Little Miss Muffet.

The first three are from the Pratt Drawathon which was so amazing.  I stayed from 7pm to 7am. Yes! I really could draw for a whole day straight.  The painting of my mom's face got selected to be in the Illustration House Gallery. Last but not least, the one with the scissors is depicting the idiom "Splitting Hairs"...or , should I say "Splitting Hares."

   

             

gesture

So this week I've realized that cutting back on unnecessary gestural lines really works. These are more simplified than what I usually do. Yay!

good news

The past two months have been very exciting. I designed the front cover of the W27 newspaper, my gesture drawings are improving aaannnnnddd two of my paintings were in the movie Remember Me with Robert Pattinson! Here they are:

new sketchbook!

ok, so the Billy's one is not from my new sketchbook but I had to add it in. Lately I've been getting some inspiration from old 1940s movies and pictures. It's what I enjoy drawing the most as of now.